Another day, another frustrating Nuggets win

Yesterday's blog "George Karl Upset at Nuggets in Victory -- As Well He Should Be" applies just as much to last night's 114-113 Nugs win over the Oklahoma Thunder as it did to the previous evening's 104-96 escape from the depleted San Antonio Spurs with one notable exception -- Karl (pictured) didn't spend most of his post-game news conference lambasting his squad. That makes sense considering the closeness of the contest, which wound up in Denver's column thanks to a Carmelo Anthony bucket with 5.2 ticks left. But if the Nuggets want to be something other than championship-caliber pretenders, they need to quiet teams like the Thunder in convincing fashion instead of trailing by seventeen points in the first half before inching past them in the closing seconds. Yeah, yeah, Chauncey Billups was hurt, and Kenyon Martin's illness kept him in street clothes again, and it was a road game, not to mention the second half of a back-to-back. Then again, even the role players should be able to handle the Thunder, who boast a less-than-sterling 11-38 mark -- and the same goes for the Washington Wizards, the Nuggets' opponent on Friday (record: 10-39). If Melo and company struggle in that game, too, here's hoping Karl let's them, and us, hear about it.